Cold air in North America leads to widespread refinery shutdowns

Valero Energy's Memphis refinery in Tennessee had a instruments freeze and units trip offline, a person familiar with operations said. Phillips 66 had an electrical issue at its Westlake plant in Louisiana.

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By BARBARA POWELL

Bloomberg

Gasoline futures rose for the first time in seven days as
frigid temperatures caused refinery shutdowns from
Newfoundland to Louisiana.

Valero Energy's Memphis refinery in Tennessee had a
instruments freeze and units trip offline, a person familiar
with operations said. Similarly, Phillips 66 had an
electrical issue at its Westlake plant in Louisiana,
according to a regulatory filing.

Korea National Oil Corp.s site in Come-by-Chance,
Newfoundland, is trying to restart after an island-wide power
failure over the weekend, company spokeswoman Gloria Slade
told CBC News.

The concern over some of the refinery issues weve seen as
a result of the brutally cold climate across the continent
has led to buying in the refined products, said Andrew
Lebow, a senior vice president at Jefferies Bache in New
York.

Gasoline for February delivery rose 2.05 cents, or 0.8%, to
$2.6665/gal at 10:32 a.m. Tuesday on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. Trading volume was 29% above the 100-day average.

The frigid air extends across the upper Midwest into the
South and eastward to the Atlantic, said Tom Kines, a
meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College,
Pennsylvania. Today, New Yorks high will struggle to
reach 10 degrees, a day after Central Park hit 50. As of 8
a.m., it was 4 degrees in New York, breaking a record for the
date set in 1896, AccuWeather said.

Extreme cold

ExxonMobil's refinery in Joliet, Illinois, had
unidentified problems with process units because of extreme
cold, according to a filing with the National Response
Center.

Those issues are impacting the products, said
Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.
There will be delays in receiving supplies. But much of
it is offset by the decline in demand due to the poor
weather.